Game 14 vs. OKC: Total Eclipse of the Heart

Did the “D” disappear when the Delta Center became EnergySolutions Arena??? There is no “D” in Utah, Salt Lake City, Jazz, Carlos, Boozer, getting embarrassed on your homecourt, pathetic, shameful, train wreck, leaving execution at the altar, why are you giving your opponents open shots on every possession?, this is as far as you can get from a Jerry Sloan team, what the frak is this crap.

Tellingly, Deron said after the game, “We used to think when people come in here it’s an automatic loss and we’ve got to get that back. Start having fun, too.” “Start having fun?” We don’t have any finger-pointing, teammates-under-the-bus-throwing players on this team (excluding that time last season when we lost to Dallas and Boozer blamed Memo). Front Office, are you listening to this? Your team is broken, and it’s on you to fix it. Only you have the power to fix it. Have you noticed how empty the arena–supposedly the NBA’s fiercest arena–is lately? No one’s going to pay money to watch this team flail.

My own little personal ray of light is AK. During one sequence in the game, he dunked on one end, blocked the shot at the other end, and dribbled the ball back down again, and I just felt happy watching him. He’s attacking the rim with a ferocity that we haven’t seen since there was a mountain on the front of his uniform and a mohawk on the top of his head*, and when he puts up a shot, I think it’s going in. Most importantly, he seems to be playing happy. If the theory that players take that leap in their third year holds, we can think of 2007-08 (i.e. the year after the meltdown, subsequent trade request, and new start with Jerry, if you will) as his rookie season, 2008-09 as his sophomore-wall-hitting, injury-plagued second season, and 2009-10 as the Great Leap Forward season. Anyway, it’s just good to have a bright spot in the midst of all this chaos.

*Seriously, watch this. Back in the day, AK used to fly–and fly hard–to the rim.